Children's Museum at Port Wonder

Two museums share one lakefront building in a city that keeps rebuilding. The Children's Museum of Southwest Louisiana and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Nature Center stand near Bord du Lac Park, on the shore of the lake that gave Lake Charles its name. Lake Charles was incorporated in 1861 as Charleston, named after early settler Charles Sallier, then reincorporated as Lake Charles in 1867. The Great Fire of 1910 destroyed much of the city. In 2005, Hurricane Rita struck. In 2020, Hurricane Laura brought winds that gusted to 137 mph and what the National Weather Service called "unsurvivable" storm surge. Hurricane Delta hit on October 9, 2020. The damage was described as if "20 tornadoes came in and wiped the city." Inside: a Tinker Lab, a climber shaped like the Calcasieu Pass Lighthouse, and free wildlife programming from the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The city sits on a level plain about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, at roughly 13 feet above sea level, on the banks of the Calcasieu River. Contraband Bayou, Henderson Bayou, and English Bayou flow through. Lake Charles is tied with Port Arthur, Texas, and Astoria, Oregon, as the most humid city in the contiguous United States. Go for what children actually need after catastrophe: something to climb, something to take apart, something that reminds them water can mean more than storm surge.